Gila Bend, AZ - FamCamp & Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Our drive from Tuscon to the Gila Bend FamCamp at the Luke AFB auxiliary field (this serves as an emergency landing field for the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range) was only 140 miles. We filled up with gas at Davis-Monthan AFB, had a couple chips in the windshield fixed while we were hooking up the car, and got on the road before 9:30am.

We arrived at the Gila Bend FamCamp around 1pm. This is the most "barebones" military campground we've stayed at so far. It's dusty, the faucet water is not potable, and not much effort has been expended on making this campground squared away, much less attractive. BUT, it costs a walloping $10 a night for full hookups so I guess its a pretty good deal.

Regarding the faucet water: apparently the arsenic content is above acceptable levels and so we were told to only use the water for showering... not for drinking or cooking. On the bright side, the Air Force installed reverse-osmosis units at each site which produce about 2 gallons of drinking water every 12 hours; 4 gallons of drinking water a day is enough for us and our fur-friends. We were also told that the faucet water smells bad and leaves rust stains on everything. This turned out not to be true: we ran the faucet water through our run-of-the-mill Camco water filter and neither of us can detect any odor or color.

We packed a picnic lunch this morning and drove about 1.5 hours south to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, passing through the bigger-than-expected town of Ajo and the blink-of-a-eye town of Why.

The first thing we did when we got to the Monument, was to check out

the Twin Peaks Campground. Wow - wish we had stayed there rather than the Gila Bend FamCamp!

Twin Peaks Campground

Despite the unfortunate name, this is one of the nicest (maybe the nicest) National Park campground we've ever seen. Although there are no hook-ups, the dump station and potable water are conveniently located, and generators are allowed in most of the campground. The sites are level concrete pads, the restrooms have running water, and there are warm showers (!!) in three of the bathrooms. Cost is $12/night. And Yes, this campground can accommodate larger motor homes.

After checking out the campground, we went over to the Visitor's Center. We watched the park video and then sat through a presentation about archeological research into ancient trading routes through areas of the park. We are usually impressed by the quality of presentations by our National Park Service... but I have to say this presentation was poorly delivered by an intern who, I think, is in a Masters Program. I would expect someone with that level of education not to deliver unorganized information with a Valley Girl lilt. Seriously.

Organ Pipe Cactus

As we were driving south on AZ-85 to the monument, and even when we entered the monument area, we noticed that Saguaro cacti dominate the landscape. We had to look closely to see any Organ Pipe cacti. I joked to Lynda that they named this Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument because Saguaro National Park was already taken. We soon learned that the Monument area is as far north as Organ Pipe Cactus are found growing naturally in the US - they are much more prevalent south of the border, in the Mexican part of the Sonoran Desert. We also learned that an Organ Pipe cactus does not produce its first flowers until around 35 years old, that these cacti reach an average height of 15 feet, and that they can live as long as 150 years.

Organ Pipe Cactus

After spending time at the Visitors Center, we went on the scenic Ajo Mountain drive. According to the park pamphlet this 21-mile drive takes about 2 hours, and that is almost exactly how long it took us to complete the loop. At first it was a bit ho-hum... we've now been in the Sonoran Desert for 2+ weeks and, aside from the occasional Organ Pipe cactus, we had seen it all before. But after about 25 minutes, the road led us up into the Ajo Mountain area and it was beautiful! As we went along, we saw more and more Organ Pipe cacti, and we ended up really enjoying that drive.

Approaching the Ajo Mountains

We got back to the Gila Bend FamCamp a little after 4pm and took Sydney and Barley for a nice long walk. Of course, they enjoyed this tremendously and had earned it by being such well-behaved doggies.

Tomorrow we're off to San Diego - stay tuned!